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- The Swiss vaccination plan is underway. Swissmedic has granted approval for the first Covid vaccine.
- The cantons can start the first Covid-19 vaccines from manufacturer Pfizer / Biontech in December, step by step and initially for people at particularly high risk.
- The army expects a delivery of around 107,000 vaccination doses in the coming days and around 250,000 doses per month starting in January.
- The cantons and the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) did not expect the corona vaccine to be approved until January at the earliest and were “somewhat caught off guard” by Swissmedic’s swift decision.
The therapeutic products authority Swissmedic has approved the first Covid-19 vaccine for the Swiss market, the Pfizer / Biontech vaccine. The FOPH announced that the first doses of vaccine would be delivered to Switzerland in the next few days, stored in the army pharmacy, and then distributed to the cantons.
Great logistical challenges
The cantons could then begin vaccinating particularly vulnerable people in specific and accompanied settings. Vaccination throughout Switzerland of risk groups and other priority target groups will start on January 4, 2021.
According to the secretary general of the Directors of Health Conference (GDK), the cantons were surprised by how quickly the vaccines were approved. Michael Jordi warned that the vaccination campaign might not go very well at first. The cantons face significant logistical challenges.
Vaccination first for the vulnerable group
All people who are not at risk can probably be vaccinated as of next spring at the earliest, Anne Lévy, director of the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG), told the Bundeshaus media. First, according to the strategy, the vaccine will benefit all vulnerable people, especially the elderly and people with previous illnesses. According to Virginie Masserey, Head of the Section for the Vaccination and Infection Control Program at FOPH, there are around two million people in Switzerland.
Thereafter, health workers and families of vulnerable people would be vaccinated. Finally, people in communal facilities with a higher risk of infection, such as homes for the disabled. According to Lévy, vaccination is an important step to protect the population, but people who have been vaccinated must also continue to adhere to protection measures. It is not yet known whether the vaccine will protect against transmission of the virus.
Hope for more vaccines
More than the quantities specified by the chief of the army pharmacy, Dan Aeschbach, 107,000 doses of vaccines in the coming days and around 250,000 per month as of January, could not be supplied by the manufacturer at this time, the chief said. from BAG, Lévy.
A media representative calculated that as a result, as of January a little more than 100,000 people could be vaccinated per month, because each person needs two doses of vaccine. It will go on for a long time. There are still other vaccines in the works, BAG representatives told him. The Federal Office hopes that more vaccines will be approved soon.
